Tuesday, April 21, 2009

I love reading because it is dangerous. The stories shake and dazzle me. The characters relentlessly inspire and change me. The information trips me and sets me flying, drifting, plummeting. The book. That doorway. I never could resist a doorway. I am going to delete Anokaberry Annotated tomorrow. I'd do it right now but I want to give this notice so if any one has me on a favorites, Blogroll, RSS feed, or bookmarks you can let me go. Thanks for having me there by the way. This is post #967. You can find me at Buttonhole, if you want to keep in touch. Or Facebook. For now anyway. I've loved so many parts of this exercise: the discipline finding and booktalking the books, the illustrating of the posts, the sharing in the community of the Kidlitosphere. It has been exhilarating some of the time. The rest of the time I wondered about my sanity. The internet and all its applications is a tyrant. I am in my essence a monk on the path. It has been a joy to connect. Peace.

Pokemon Adventures, Volume 1 by Hidenori KusakaAnyone familiar with children’s television has probably seen the animated version of Pokemon. This new series from VIZ tells the story from the start, without some of the bad jokes which fill the TV screen. The central character, known simply as Red in this manga version, is out to catch and train Pokemon, the strange wild creatures that exist in the world around him. From childhood, he had befriended one who had saved him from possible death. Now he has begun his personal quest, to become a skilled trainer of these strange creatures. Along the way in this first volume he encounters the friends and enemies who will make the story interesting. In this manga version, both are far more interesting than in the Americanized anime. Team Rocket are villains in the style of something from Tezuka’s work, rather than being comic relief. Pikachu, destined to become his best fighting Pokemon, is portrayed more in the tradition of the untamed creature who might someday be a friend. Even Brock and Misty have actual personalities… Some may question Red’s career choice, but not his dedication.There is cartoony violence in these stories, but no gore. Suitable for all ages.-- Nick Smith

Here's what the author has to say about her character Trixie: "Magic Trixie is a combination of all of my nieces and the children of my friends. She’s an homage to all of the little bits of business or surprising things they have done in my presence filtered into one little girl. I’ve also mined some of my own childhood memories. But she’s a work in progress. I’ll always be adding to her, bit by bit. I’ve given her my curly hair. I have a fondness for wild hair on little girls, mostly because I hated it when I was a girl. I wanted long, straight, blond hair that you could brush and comb...or braid in smooth plaits. My braids always looked like dreadlocks. I was one of the “no more tangles” generation, which did not work for me, I’m sorry to say. She’s also a bit elfish." Book 1 in this series is Magic Trixie followed by Book 2 Magic Trixie Sleeps Over.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Puppet by Eva WisemanThe year is 1882. A young servant girl named Esther disappears from a small Hungarian village. Several Jewish men from the village of Tisza Eszvar face the ‘blood libel’ — the centuries-old calumny that Jews murder Christian children for their blood. A fourteen-year-old Jewish boy named Morris Scharf becomes the star witness of corrupt authorities who coerce him into testifying against his fellow Jews, including his own father, at the trial.

To be fair, I asked him, to tell the story about the chickens. I remembered some about it and used my memory to help him remember. I call my elderly father (he lives in Michigan and will be 85 in June) every two weeks or so. Usually on a Sunday, and we talk until the batteries on my two cordless phones run out. This week I asked him about the chickens. This is what he told me. He and mom saw an ad in the paper that Little Brothers was giving away male chicks and they decided to go ahead take a box of 50 and raise them for chicken dinners. He built a coop on the back of the garage I remember a game we (there were only 3 of us then, my sister Janie, me and a baby boy, Timmy) had of running around and around the garage and climbing the coop and jumping off the roof, there were a couple of neighbor kids involved too - in the jumping off the roof game.... He made a little door into the garage so the chickens could go into a small partitioned area in there with a couple of light bulbs for warmth. He bought some chicken feed and fashioned a trough for the food. He put some water in a couple of bowls. And dumped the box of chicks in there. I asked him if any died. He said he didn't remember. He said he didn't remember to several of my questions. When they got big enough he began to kill them. I remember the foot-long, bloody piece of 2x4 and the hatchet. He just put their necks to the board and chopped off their heads. "They would run around the yard a bit", he said, "without their heads". He had a bucket of hot to boiling water ready, he plunged the body in there and then, holding it by the feet would pluck the feathers. "Took some effort but not too bad". He slit the belly and gutted the bird and then Mom baked it up for dinner.

Tan to Tamarind: Poems About the Color Brown by Malathi Michelle Iyengar, Jamel Akib (Illustrator)When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Tan, sienna, topaz, or tamarind? Poet Malathi Michelle Iyengar sees a whole spectrum of beautiful shades of brown. The author adds this note: "When I was a little girl in North Carolina, I hated waiting for the school bus. Every day at the bus stop a group of older kids would call me names and make fun of my brown skin, saying brown was a dirty, ugly color. I longed to trade my complexion for peachy-pink. I still remember sitting in the bathtub and hoping that if I just scrubbed hard enough the brown would go away. As I got older I began discovering wonderful stories and poems written by and about proud brown people. When I read their words, I didn't feel ugly or dirty anymore...Today, when I look in the mirror, I feel happy and lucky to see a brown face smiling back at me. Because, from tan to tamarind, brown is a beautiful color..."BrownMy face.Milk-tea brown. I am brown. I am beautiful.Brown.Your face.Sienna brownor cocoa brown,café con leche brown orradiant ocher brown.Our hands, our fingers.Cinnamon brownor rich coffee brown,sandalwood brown or rosy adobe brown.Our ankles, our feet.Nutmeg brownor mocha brown,dark chocolate brownor tawny golden brown.Our eyes.Luminous topaz brownor sweet cappuccino brown,shiny sepia brownor twinkling brown.Our hair.Spruce brownor bay brown,russet brown ordeep tamarind brown.We are brown. We are beautiful.

Is it a duck or a rabbit? Depends on how you look at it! Readers will find more than just Amy Krouse Rosenthal's signature humor here, there's also a subtle lesson for kids who don't know when to let go of an argument. A smart, simple story that will make readers of all ages eager to take a side.

Top of the Order by John CoyTen-year-old Jackson lives for baseball, but becomes distracted by the approach of middle school, his mother's latest boyfriend, and the presence of a girl--his good friend's sister--on his team. Read more about John Coy and his books here.

Earthgirl by Jennifer CowanEarthgirl follows the eco-evolution of sixteen-year-old Sabine Solomon, who is thrown into the fray one afternoon when she's riding her bike downtown to join her friends, and an idling minivan driver carelessly tosses leftovers from McDonald's out the car window, blindsiding Sabine and leaving her covered in plum sauce. When Sabine tosses the garbage back at the offensive driver, an altercation ensues that is captured on the videophones of her friends. In a technological blink, footage is posted on YouTube, and Sabine finds herself at the center of a heated eco-debate. A crusader is born.

The September Sisters by Jillian CantorAbigail Reed and her younger sister, Becky, are always at each other's throats. Their mother calls them the September Sisters, because their birthdays are only a day apart, and pretends that they're best friends. But really, they delight in making each other miserable. Then Becky disappears in the middle of the night, and a torn gold chain with a sapphire heart charm is the only clue to the mystery of her kidnapping.

Same Difference by Siobhan VivianFeeling left out since her long-time best friend started a serious relationship, sixteen-year-old Emily looks forward to a summer program at the Philadelphia College of Art but is not sure she is up to the challenges to be faced there, including finding herself and learning to balance life and art.

Baseball Great by Tim GreenAll twelve-year-old Josh wants to do is play baseball but when his father, a minor league pitcher, signs him up for a youth championship team, Josh finds himself embroiled in a situation with potentially illegal consequences.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Melonhead by Katy Kelly, Gillian Johnson (Illustrator)In the Washington, D.C. neighborhood of Capitol Hill, Lucy Rose's friend Adam "Melonhead" Melon, a budding inventor with a knack for getting into trouble, enters a science contest that challenges students to recycle an older invention into a new invention.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Young Samurai: The Way of the Warrior by Chris BradfordOrphaned by a ninja pirate attack off the coast of Japan in 1611, twelve-year-old English lad Jack Fletcher is determined to prove himself, despite the bullying of fellow students, when the legendary sword master who rescued him begins training him as a samurai warrior.

The Brooklyn Nine: A Novel in Nine Innings by Alan GratzFollows the fortunes of a German immigrant family through nine generations, beginning in 1845, as they experience American life and play baseball."...He looked for it again now and there it was, all around him. The kind of day where a little dirt on his hands felt good, where the high blue sky was just right for catching fly balls, where grounders always bounced into his outstretched glove. It had been that way all along, but it hadn't belonged to him or to anybody else. It was baseball's day..."/Eighth Inning: The Perfectionist, page 262

Monday, April 13, 2009

In an overpopulated world where all signs of nature have been obliterated and a wall has been erected to keep out plague-ridden animals, twelve-year-old Mika refuses to believe that his twin sister was killed after being abducted, and continues to search for her in spite of the dangers he faces in doing so.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

The Cuckoo's Haiku and Other Birding Poems by Michael J. Rosen, Stanley Fellows (Illustrator)A joyful primer on the pleasures of bird-watching merges haiku, notes for identifying species, and exquisite watercolor illustrations.In spare and graceful words, poet and birder Michael J. Rosen captures the forecasting call of the mysterious cuckoo as well as essential characteristics of more than twenty commonly seen North American birds. This artfully compiled field notebook — enriched by the evocative artwork of watercolorist Stan Fellows — captures the excitement of recognizing a bird, whether a darting kingfi sher, a wandering wild turkey, or a chirpy house sparrow.

4U@ACL

What is Anokaberry Annotated?

Anokaberry posted the Best Books of 2008 for Middle Grade Readers on January 9, 2009. Anokaberry is now Anokaberry Annotated. This new aspect of the blog means an accent, a tone, a personal, distinct voice may surface. This blog continues to present books published in the current year for middle grade readers but will also have editorial comment and attitude. Look for more ordered labeling for the coming year -- most obviously labeling that denotes genre: realistic fiction, historical fiction, science fiction, biography, poetry and verse, folklore/folktale and fantasy. Next January's list will honor books of excellence by genre.